Friday Night Lights - Episode 118 - Extended Families

Like patterns drawn on a scarred gym floor by murderball players running drills, several of tonight's storylines overlap. My Ever-Patient Mister says the whole episode's about faithfulness -- coach to team, man to woman, friend to friend, parent to child -- and all the ways that faith is tested. He's a smart fella, my Mister. We'll get to all that soon, but first...there's a game to be played!

"SOMEBODY JUMP-START MY HEART!" -- The Panthers meet and beat the Royal Rock Dragons 26-21 when a last-second Dragon "Hail, Mary" gets a Panther "Hell, No" in the end zone, and the March To State continues its inexorable surge. Next stop: the semi-finals. Go, Panthers! I can honestly say that our boys, sweat-soaked and game-flushed in their bright blue jerseys, look so good that I have to break out my "the actors are all over 21, the actors are all over 21" mantra to keep from feeling like a total pervert. Speaking of which, did you know that Zach Gilford

is six months older than Jared Padalecki?

Yeah. Chew on that for awhile. No, not Jared, though I wouldn't blame you for trying.

"HONEY, WHAT IS THAT THING THAT'S ON OUR FRONT PORCH?" – After Pam Garrity kicks Buddy out on his keester, he shows up on the Taylors' doorstep like a stray basset hound looking for new owners and proceeds to pee in all the corners. Okay, not really...at least not that we see...but he does take over the bathroom, demand pork chops, and pull out Eric's game tapes to watch. When Eric and Tami go out to dinner with the athletic director from TMU, who wants to talk to Eric about a possible job, Buddy uses a little trick he learned from Magnum P.I. and shades in the message pad to read who the Taylors are meeting. Clever! And nosy! And entirely inappropriate! Meanwhile, Julie, resentful at being left alone in the house with St. Satan, sneaks out to a party at Trouble's house. Double, having drowned her Buddy-related sorrow in sleeping pills, wanders out into the party and falls into a glass coffee table, cutting herself badly enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room. Julie calls her mom, interrupting the TMU dinner, and tells her there's no adult there to handle things, so Tami hightails it to the hospital. When Eric gets home, Buddy confronts him about the TMU thing. Eric seems a little conflicted himself, but then does some confronting of his own when he tells Buddy he really ought to be paying more attention to the mess he's made with his family and less attention to the goddamn Panthers. Okay, that's paraphrased, but if you watch Kyle Chandler's face in the scene, you totally know that's what he's thinking. Oh, and at the end of the episode? TMU makes an offer. WOW! What will Coach T do?

"IT FEELS LIKE A BIG OLD FREIGHT TRAIN IS HEADING RIGHT IN MY DIRECTION" -- Is it too late for me to grow up to be Tami Taylor? Tami handles things at the hospital and gets Double settled back at home with a probable one-two punch of sleeping pills AND pain killers. Then she tries to help Trouble clean up, but Trouble gets her bitch on and basically tells her if Tami thinks she's such a bad person, she can just leave, fuck you very much. Adrianne Palicki emo porns to a Dean Winchesterish degree in this scene, and my Ever-Patient Mister and I are both a little teary by the time she's done. You can clearly see that underneath the lip she's using as a defense mechanism, she's as vulnerable to hurt as Julie, without near the parental support that Julie takes for granted. Tami tells her, "Julie's my girl," and says maybe she's misplaced blame for Julie's behavior on Trouble, but that she's going to do whatever she can to keep that freight train at bay. The fact that Tami's looking out for Julie while Trouble cleans up her mom's mess tells pretty much the whole story. Tami and Trouble are alike in some interesting and unexpected ways -- they're both fiercely protective of those they love, even when the ones they love disappoint them. Trouble bends a little, saying she'll get the broom, and together they clean the pig-sty. Looks like it takes all night, because morning sun is peering in the window by the time they finish. As she gets ready to leave, Tami invites Trouble to come to her office on Monday, to discuss her "academic future." Trouble smiles and says, "Am I your next project?" Tami fires off a big grin right back at her and says, "Absolutely!" Awww! Trouble seems to have come around on the whole protective-mom thing, and I love that Tami stood her ground. It makes me wonder if Tami might have been a lot like Trouble, back in the day. And speaking of troubled girls...

"WAVERLY GRADY, WHAT'S GOTTEN INTO YOU?" – Probably Smash Williams, based on skinny-dipping evidence. Let's hope he had some fresh protection on him when Waverly took him out for that "romantic moonlight swim." More to the point is what hasn't gotten into Waverly, namely the meds that help keep her moods in balance. Pastor Grady asks Smash to keep an eye out for anything "different" about Waverly, and it doesn't take long for Smash to see it. Waverly goes from a high high of quoting poetry at some volume then giving Smash a tongue-bath in front of the whole diner to a low low of curling up, practically catatonic, on her kitchen floor as Smash sits beside her, shocked and helpless. I spent the whole time Smash was looking for her at her house scared to death that she'd done herself harm, but as always, Friday Night Lights didn't go for easy, obvious, or trite, and instead opted for nuanced, complicated, and difficult. I guess that trip to Africa was a red herring, huh.

"GOOD LORD, IF IT AIN'T MISS BUZZKILL" -- In the face of her daddy's infidelity and her mama's consequent fury, Lyla does what any somewhat delusional, God-fearin', unicorn-lovin' girl would, and takes off for a weekend in Austin with Jason. Unfortunately, Austin's not exactly Lylaworld, either, as Lyla starts to come to grip with the hard evidence of Jason's new life -- the tattoo, Suzy Q, and his increasing absorption with quad rugby. When she seems to imply that maybe her mama shouldn't "get over" what her daddy did with Double, Jason goes to the well-known passage in the Gospel According To Tami and says, with the fervor of the recently converted, "There's no weakness in forgiveness." Good to know somebody's listening to Tami! At one of those rockin' quad parties, Lyla gets a wee bit wasted and sasses Suzy (she holds her own against Herc, but doesn't come off looking too good), then later accuses Jason of falling in love with Suzy Q. He talks her out of her tree and assures her that she is the one he loves, and that they will survive, they've got all their life to live, they've got all their love to give. She buys it, at least for now, though it's clear that her neatly ordered world has taken yet another head-spinning hit. Andthentheyhavesex, or at least I'm going to assume that's what Jason's half-naked "VICTORY!" squeal while curled up in bed with Lyla is all about.

"WHAT'RE YOU DOING, TIM RIGGINS?" – Um, I'm betting the answer to that would be 'the MILF next door', given half the chance. Or, as it's known in my household, Ran's Not-So Secret Fantasy. I'm sure there are red-blooded women out there who can resist Tim Riggins' particular blend of hotassery and neediness, but I'm not one of them and neither, apparently, is the new girl on the block, who turns out to be a grown woman with a child. The attraction's definitely mutual; I can tell because of the matching shaggy hair and the degree of awkwardness between them. There's also the added bonus of the MILF's motor-mouthed young'un, Bo, who makes Landry look downright taciturn. Bo latches on to Tim with a devotion that borders on kiddie-stalking. He's just another lonely little boy, and if Tim can relate to anything, it's that. Tim soaks up Bo's uncomplicated affection like someone who's not getting near enough love in his life, and he smiles more in this episode than all the others put together. Put that smile and indulgent look with the healing black eye from last week's fight, and that squelching sound you hear is me melting into a puddle of lusty goo. Plus, the MILF comes with baggage, taco casserole and rain gutters Tim can fix, so...I'm gonna call that a done deal.